The Sun's Babies Page 8

  "Well, this is a comical place," said Roy. "May we go and have agame?" he asked the Princess.

  The Princess shook her head. "It is too late to-day," she said. "Youmust leave us now, or it will be dark before you reach your homes. Butkeep your promise to me, and I will give you a stone that will guideyou to the Palace another time. Then you may come earlier and so havetime for a game."

  The boys were overjoyed. "That will be first-rate," they said. "Whenmay we come again?"

  "The moon was full last night," answered the Princess. "Come always onthe day after the full moon. See--these will guide you." She pickedtwo small stones off the ground and gave them one each. As she touchedthem they gleamed and shone like opals; but when the boys took themthey lost their light. "Do not lose these," she said. "If you keepyour promise these stones will guide you to the Palace and open thedoor for you." She took them back through the Palace and out on to thehillside again. The boys thanked her and said good-bye, and she wentin, shutting the door behind her with a word. When it was shut, youcould not tell it was there, for the grass and tussocks grew over it.

  Roy and Charlie went straight home, talking all the way about thewonderful things they had seen and heard. "We must watch carefully forthe next full moon," said Roy at his gate, as they stood for a momentto say good-night. "Yes, indeed," said Charlie, "what a time we shallhave!" Then he hurried home.

  "Have you had a good time, Charlie?" asked his mother at tea-time.

  "Rather!" said Charlie. "I don't believe anybody ever saw so manywonderful things as we saw to-day." And then he grew so excited at thethought of it all that he forgot about his promise, and told his motherand father about the Princess and the Palace. He knew before he hadfinished that he had done wrong, but that did not stop him. And theworst of it was that neither his father nor his mother believed him.His mother at first looked very grave, and asked him if he had been inthe sun without his hat, but his father said: "Nonsense! the sun wasnot hot to-day. See that he doesn't read too much, Mary. We don'twant him to learn to spin yarns like this." Then he was sent to bed.

  Roy did not break his promise. He told his father and mother about hisrabbiting, and about things he saw on the hills and in the gullies, buthe said nothing at all about the Princess and the Palace. It was hardto keep silent when it was such a wonderful secret, but he rememberedhis promise.

  And that is how Roy found the Palace again and Charlie did not. Whenthe day after the full moon came, they both started out, but Roy'sstone led him straight to the Palace, while Charlie's led him all theafternoon away from it. They were magic stones, and had power topunish and reward. So Roy was led to the Princess, and had all sortsof wonderful games with Little Hoppy, while Charlie, because he had notkept his word, was led astray and not allowed to follow Roy or find thePalace for himself. And he has never found it yet.

  URCHINS IN THE SEA

  Baby Urchin was vexed. "The grown-ups have all the fun," he said tohis brothers and sisters. "Every day they play on the beach, while weare told to stay here amongst these stupid rocks and seaweeds. On thebeach they have glorious times. I have often heard them talk about it.Why shouldn't we go?"

  "Yes, indeed," said the others. "Let us all go."

  They swam eagerly from their playground between the rocks--the queerestbabies you ever saw. They looked as if they were made of chalk andglass; and each had about twelve long arms, sticking straight out inevery direction from the funny white body.

  They were fast swimmers; they went gaily on, never thinking of possibledangers. But a hungry fish saw them, and came straight at them withwide-open mouth. Snap! The cruel jaws closed together, and a hundredBaby Urchins fell down the great throat. Then those who were leftturned and swam for home as fast as their terrified arms could takethem.

  "You were very disobedient, and you all deserved to be eaten up," saidthe grown-up Urchins when they heard what had happened. "And besides,it is no use coming to the beach yet. You can't possibly roll on thebeach with those long arms of yours."

  "It seems to take such a long time to grow up," said Baby Urchin.

  "Eat plenty," said the grown-ups, "then you will soon be like us."

  Time passed. The little Urchins did not again try to reach the beach,but they ate plenty and they grew big. Then they began to change.Their funny arms grew shorter and shorter till they disappearedaltogether; their bodies grew thicker; and then at last their shellsbegan to come.

  "Now we are growing up!" cried Baby Urchin joyfully.

  Their shells grew fast, and so did the babies inside, changing theirshape altogether. Up and down the round shells ran rows of tiny holes,and in between the rows of holes scores of little white balls grew out.On the balls movable spines grew, and through each hole peeped a newleg ready to stretch far out when it was needed for swimming orwalking. Under the shell was the mouth; from it five strong whiteteeth hung down to crush the seaweed and break it up for food. On topof the shell were tiny eye specks.

  At last they were ready. "Come on," cried Baby Urchin. "Nobody canhurt us now." He led the way to the beach. They all followed,swimming with their legs and spines, and looking like hedgehogs in thesea.

  What a time they had when they reached the beach! They swam in with awave, rolled over and over on the beach, burrowed with their tinyspines in the soft sand, and then swam out with the next wave. "It issplendid to be grown up," they said.

  WHERE WHITE WAVES PLAY

  I.--RED-BILL

  In a sand-strewn hollow of a rock ledge on a tiny island lay aseagull's egg, yellow and grey and brown, to match the yellow and greyand brown of the sand and rocks. White waves played beneath it,dancing each day to the foot of the ledge, and throwing handfuls ofspray up its rocky side, but never breaking over the top. Sea windswhisked above it, but never blew it from its sandy bed. No hungry hawkspied it from his vigilant soaring place; no hunting dog found it.Safe from harm, and quickened by the genial sun and the warmth of themother's tender breast, the speck of life inside the egg grew slowly toa seagull baby.

  When the baby first peeped out from the soft darkness of his mother'ssheltering wings the world looked very wide and dazzling. Overhead thebig blue sky shone brightly, sunshine flooded all the air; nearer homegleaming points of light, like little stars, flashed on all sidesamidst the sand. He drew in his head.

  "The light is too bright, mother," he said. "It hurts my eyes. Butwhat is that sweet sound I hear?"

  "Dear one, those are the white waves at play. They are the kindfriends who carry your meals to shore. See--here is your father with asea-worm for your breakfast. Open your bill and swallow."

  He was the fluffy darling of his parents, their sole care and joy. Dayafter day, week after week, they waited on him, by turns guarding himand fishing for him, bringing him soft delicious morsels of crab andpipi and tender fish. Under such faithful feeding he grew fast. Eachday he looked over his ledge.

  "The waves, mother!" he said. "The white, white waves! They arealways calling. May I not go yet to the sea?"

  "Not yet," his mother would reply. "Baby gulls must wait till feathersgrow in place of down."

  Feathers grew in place of down. Baby wings broadened and grew strong,and at last he could fly.

  "The waves still call, mother," he pleaded.

  "Come, then," said his mother at last, and down they all went to thesea, and the joy of life began.

  He was as yet only a mottled brown baby, not nearly so handsome as hisdove-backed parents with their breasts of snow. But his pink webbedtoes oared their way gleefully through the clear water, and his littlebrown bill learned to snap the fleeing fish as cunningly as the crimsonbeaks of the older birds.

  What a life that was! They soared over restless waves onscarcely-moving wings, swooping low and dropping where the flash offins proclaimed a feast. They circled tiny bays whose seaweed carpetsclothed the floors in rainbow hues; or rode like fairy craft upon theever-rolling breakers
on the shelving shores. When fierce winds blew,they wheeled and screamed like spirits of the storm, laughing to seethe surface of the sea torn up and flung against the high coast rocks.

  Slowly, as the months rolled by, the little Red-bill's feathers changedfrom mottled brown to pearly grey and shining white; scarlet flamed onbill and feet. The full bright beauty of his kind was on him.

  Mating season came. "Little love," he said to his chosen one, "I knowan island where our egg will be safe and our baby sheltered. There,where white waves sing and dance all day, he shall be loved and tendedas I was loved and tended."

  II.--THE SEA-SQUIRT WHO STOOD ON HIS HEAD

  Far out into the waters of a quiet bay stretched a wooden jetty, oldand rotting and scarcely ever used. The browned and blackened timbersthat showed above the water-line were by no means beautiful, but attheir feet was fairyland. Here, in pale green clearness, forests ofdelicate seaweeds bent their gold and amber beads to the gentlemovement of the water; swift-finned fishes, gay in scarlet and silverand bronze, swam the forest pathways and chased each other in and outcool shaded bowers beneath the filmy branches; most beautiful of all,myriads of long-tubed sea-squirts waved their pink and crimson ballsfrom the jetty piles, like great closed poppies in the sea.

  How they waved! Up and down, backwards and forwards. Not moved by thewater, but moving in the water, though never freed from the jettypiles. After all, these were not flowers, but animals.

  Continually they opened their pink, round mouths to let the water passthrough their bodies, in the hope that each fresh mouthful mightcontain a meal. Again and again, squirt! They were forced to throwout some fragment of shell or rock which had floated in and causedannoyance.

  At the foot of one pile there was some excitement, for a babysea-squirt was setting out to see the world. He was impatient to beoff, but his mother was giving him a great deal of advice. If you hadseen him lying in the water you would never have recognised him as thesea-squirt's son. No mother and son were ever more unlike. She wasbig, with a thick-skinned tube half a yard long, and a ball at the topshaped like a quince; he was tiny and soft, and looked like a babytadpole. She was gaily coloured; he was colourless and jelly-like.She was fixed to the jetty pile; he could swim. Yet, in spite of thesegreat differences, mother and son they were.

  "Dear child," she said, "whatever you do, never stand on your head."

  "Of course not," he replied; "I shall never wish to."

  "But you will wish to," cried his mother. "You won't be able to helpit. It runs in the family. Listen, son. Once I was like you; I couldswim and move about to find my food. Before me, all our grandfathersand grandmothers for millions of years back were for a part of theirlives like you. If they had never stood on their heads they might havegrown eyes and backbones and fins, and become as great and clever asthe fishes. But because those old grandparents became lazy and stoodon their heads till they grew to the rocks, we in turn have all grownlazy, and we in turn have been punished by the loss of our swimmingpowers. If you could only break loose from the family's bad habit, youmight start a glorious free race of sea-squirts. All the mostsuccessful creatures in the sea are those that have backbones and eyes.You have the beginnings of these two things in you, but if you stand onyour head you will lose them, as I have done. You will become fixedand helpless like the seaweeds. Promise me never to stand on yourhead. Promise me that you will keep moving."

  "Yes, mother. Oh, yes. Good-bye. Good-bye." The impatient littlefellow could wait no longer.

  "How grown-ups talk!" he thought. "As if I should ever wish to standon my head!"

  He swam about for several hours, enjoying himself exceedingly in thisgreat wet world. At last he came to the end pile of the jetty. Here,to his great astonishment, there suddenly came upon him the mostoverpowering desire to stand on his head. To stand on his head! Thevery thing his mother had foretold. Well, she was right, after all, soperhaps she was right in advising him to keep moving. "I will swimon," he said.

  He swam on bravely. But before him was the wide open sea, with nocomfortable piles to rest against. And oh! how he longed to rest.Just to put that heavy head of his down against something firm--howdelightful that would be! That was a splendid pile, that last one! Sostrong and wide. It could not matter if he rested just a few minutes.He really would not stay long.

  So, forgetting his promise, this foolish baby swam back. Down went hishead against the comfortable pile, and alas! there he has stayed eversince. His mother's wise words faded from his mind. He was too lazyto stir. From his head tiny tubes grew on to the wood, holding himthere for life.

  What a change has come over him! Tail and little growing eye andbackbone, all have died away; in their place has grown the long tubewith the gaily-coloured fleshy ball at its end, through which the waterruns with every wave, bringing sometimes food, sometimes nothing butsand and stones. Gone are the old swimming powers, the old free life.Gone is all chance of growing into something strong and grand andsuccessful. He is beautiful, but he is helpless.

  I wonder does he ever think of what might have been? Does he ever say,sadly: "If I had but kept moving on!"

  III.--BOBBY BARNACLE'S WANDERINGS

  The Barnacles lived on the rocks with the Mussels and Limpets and redAnemones. There were hundreds and thousands and millions of littleshell-houses, set so closely together that scarcely any room was leftfor pathways. Twice a day the friendly waves, like busy white-cappedwaiters, hurried up the shore with a feast of tiny sea creatures intheir soft, wet hands. Then, one by one, doors were carefully openedwhile the waiting shell-people took in their food, but were soon shutagain, for fear of lurking enemies.

  It was a quiet life, but so safe that the rocks became overcrowded.When Bobby Barnacle and his brothers and sisters and cousins werehatched out of their little egg-cases and swam from their mother'sacorn-shell houses, the old Barnacles were alarmed.

  "Dear me!" said the very oldest. "What a swarm of you! For goodnesssake don't come back here to settle after your swim. We are crowdedalready."

  "Plenty of room in the sea!" laughed Bobby. "Come on everybody. Weare not thinking of settling down yet. We are going to have a grandtime first. I am sure I shall never wish to spend all my time in oneplace. A roving life for me!"

  Headed by Bobby, the shoal of Barnacle babies set off on their travels.They certainly did not look in the least like settling down. They swamand dived and frolicked and tumbled and whisked about in the dancingwaves as if possessed by the very spirit of movement. To such atoms ofenergy, sitting still on a rock was plainly an impossibility. Theywere queer, tiny, soft-bodied creatures. Thin, delicate shields ontheir backs were their only shells. They each had three pairs of legs,one eye, and a funny, spiky tail. As they went they ate hungrily,swallowing sea animals so tiny that scores of them would go into asmall girl's thimble.

  "Look out!" Bobby shouted suddenly. As he spoke he turned to the rightand swam for dear life, hiding at last under a tangle of ferny seaweed.The others were too late to save themselves. A great fish hadswallowed them all in three snaps of its cruel jaws, and Bobby was leftalone in the wide sea. He was badly frightened, but presently he swamout from his hiding-place and continued his travels. It was somewhatlonely, but he soon grew accustomed to that. Indeed, he began to likeit. He swam and ate and whisked about in the water as cheerfully asever, keeping his one eye well opened for possible enemies. A shoal ofcousins from a sea rock met him.

  "Come and play with us," they said.

  "No," said Bobby; "I'm going to travel."

  Out to sea he went, amongst all the wonders of the white-crested water.Below him lay great colonies of bright corals and sponges andsea-anemones, living their simple quiet lives. Around him rushed anddarted eager, busy fishes, keeping him ever on the move to evade theirhungry jaws. Many a narrow escape he had, but he was so nimble that henever was caught.

  As he grew, his skin and shield became too small for hi
m. "This ismost uncomfortable," he thought. Split! Skin and shield dropped off.New ones had been growing underneath, but these at first were soft, andhe had to shelter under seaweed till they hardened. To his greatcomfort they were soon firmer than the old ones. Several times hemoulted in this way, and each time the new skin and shield came harderand stronger, making him safer from his enemies.

  One day a strange thing happened. He lost his appetite. "Whatever isthe matter with me?" he wondered. He soon discovered. He was changinghis shape. Another eye grew, and three more pairs of legs, and ashield on the front as well as the back.

  "Well, I am a fine, strong fellow now," he thought. "I feel as if Icould do wonders."

  He swam on faster than ever. Indeed, his activity was marvellous. Heseemed to shoot through the water. But, strangely enough, he stillcould not eat, so it is no wonder that at last he grew tired.

  "I think I must settle down on something," he said. "This life isreally most exhausting. And yet I don't want to sit down on a rock andstay in one place all my life. I wish I could find something moving."

  Something moving came through the water, something so huge that to thetiny Barnacle its side was like the side of a world. It was a whale,but Bobby was not afraid. As it slowly lifted its great body throughthe waves he made his way to it and clung on with all his strength.The whale plunged on his mighty way to colder seas, bearing his littleunfelt rider with him.